New ‘Alien: Covenant’ Details Reveal a Returning Character and the Nature of Michael Fassbender’s Performance

Alien: Covenant, the sequel to Prometheus and the sixth film in the Alien series, has played its cards close to its vest throughout filming, leaving most of the film’s plot details and characters specifics hidden from view. However, a few interesting details have begun to leak out from a tiny breach in the production’s hull, including the return of a certain Alien character and the nature of one performance in the film.

Naturally, these should be considered spoilers and anyone who wants to know as little about Alien: Covenant as possible should turn back now. Still here? Okay. Let’s take a look.

This first report comes from AVP Galaxy, who says that one of the more controversial characters in Prometheus will be back for another round…albeit in a flashback:

We have learnt that Guy Pearce will be reprising his role as a slightly younger Peter Weyland during the film’s opening scenes. The current edit of Alien: Covenant begins with David 8 being brought online in a large white room with a grand view overlooking an ocean.

A younger, but still somewhat aged, Weyland asks David various questions to test him. We eventually move to David performing Richard Wagner’s “Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla”, explaining the meaning of the piece as he plays.

Although I fall firmly on the side of those who defend the flawed-but-fabulous Prometheus, Pearce’s work in the film remains one of the film’s weirdest choices. While he appeared as his current self in the film’s viral marketing, Pearce was covered in thick old-age make-up for the entirety of his screen time in the actual film, leading many people to wonder why director Ridley Scott didn’t just hire an older actor, and whether there were other scenes with younger Peter Weyland sitting on the cutting room floor.

And if you want to know why a flashback featuring Peter Weyland and David 8 (played so memorably by Michael Fassbender in Prometheus) would be in Alien: Covenant in the first place, you only have to ask Fassbender. The actor spoke to the Irish Times (via AVP Galaxy), revealing that he is playing two roles in the film:

I am allowed to say I am playing two robots – Walter and David. I think what’s great about it is that Ridley has gone back to the original DNA of Alien, the horror element of that. But is also has the scope and the scale of Prometheus. Ridley has cut it already. He is a machine. He is an incredible human being and he was in such good form. He is such an imaginative and mischievous figure.

AVP Galaxy elaborated on Fassbender’s statement, providing additional details on David and Walter:

[We] can also also tell you that Walter is not a fan of David. Walter is a more advanced and up-to-date version of the David model. He is distrustful of David 8 because the older model has gone without any form of maintenance or upgrades during the ten year interval he has been in isolation between the Prometheus incident and the Covenant crew making landfall on the supposed paradise planet that Alien: Covenant takes place on.

These details follow another round of potential spoilers regarding the nature of the Xenomorph threat in the new movie. In other words, the spoiler-phobic had best watch their step – on the internet, no one can hear your groan in disgust as you learn something you didn’t want to know.